


pity party

by watergator



Series: tumblr prompts [3]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-03 02:14:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17275190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watergator/pseuds/watergator
Summary: prompt: “the ladies love a guy who’s good with kids.”





	pity party

Dan doesn’t want to be here; there’s a million and one places he’d rather be right now, and being held responsible for a children’s birthday party for a bunch of eleven year olds is the furthest of where he wants to be.

If he really had a choice in all of this, he’d be hauled up in his room with his laptop on his belly and a blanket wrapped around his shoulders staring at the screen at a pixelated face he’s grown accustomed to seeing almost every day now.

“Nana,” Dan complains as his grandmother hands him one side of a happy birthday banner, ignoring his groaning.

“Don’t ‘nana’ me,” she warns him sharply as she takes the other side and stands up on his tippy toes to reach up above the fireplace. “Use that gangly body of your and pin that up there, would you?” she asks.

She needn’t ask, really, because he does it without question, as with most favours his nana asks for. He’ll garden for her, help her bake cookies and scrub soot and coal from her fireplace every winter – only because he’s one of two grandchildren and he’s always enjoyed being her favourite.

He tacks up the crappy looking banner and steps back with nana to admire it. They both frown.

“It’s all wonky!” Nana says with a huff as she goes back and tries to adjust it, but as soon as she tries to move it, it simply flutters down off the wall.

Nana snatches it back up with a huff and turns back to Dan. “Help me here, sweetheart,” she speaks with her voice strained, but Dan tuts with a click of his tongue and rolls his eyes.

“I don’t wanna babysit. This is stupid,” he groans as he takes the banner from her hands and does the same half-assed job. He’s hoping that if he keeps cocking it up she’ll get annoyed with him and send him away.

It isn’t the case, however because she shrugs her shoulders at the even wonkier than before banner and gives up.

“Dan, darling,” she starts, putting her hand on his shoulder which he just shrugs off, “it’s only a couple of hours. You’ll only be needing to make sure your brother and his friends don’t get in any trouble,” she assures him but once more Dan rolls his eyes. It’s beginning to feel like a work out.

“Why do I have to do it though? Why not an actual adult?” he asks as he follows her where she walks out to the kitchen where a table of little fairy cakes are presented, and she turns to face him with a chuckle.

“Because you’re his big brother and you are an adult.” She reminds him.

Dan picks up a cake and laughs sharply as he peels the paper off the bottom of it and taking a bite into the soft sponge. Nana gives him a look of disapproval.

“It’s just that – I don’t feel like an adult most times. Seems like I’m an adult when it suits everyone else,” Dan laughs, looking over at where his Nana throws a stack of plates into the sink trying to hide the smile from her lips.

“That’s the way the world works, sweetie,” she says with a sigh. “Besides, I thought you were going to invite a friend over today anyway?” she asks turning to face him.

Dan swallows his cake down dryly with a shake of his head. “Nah. No one wanted to hang out with the loser at an eleven-year old’s birthday party,” Dan tells her dryly and she picks up a towel and swats him across the arm with it, hard. He doesn’t even react, instead moving beside her to help wash up.

“Not even that girl you were seeing?” Nana asks after a while, voice unsure and Dan laughs loudly with a bounce of his shoulders.

“No way. Not a chance.”

He hopes that’s thrown her off the track that he’s no longer seeing her. He’d mentioned it briefly to his family, only due to common decency that he should explain that the girl that he’d bring around to the house every now and then wouldn’t be showing up anymore, leaving it up to them to understand why, but he supposes nana still has some sort of naive hope that he’ll invite her round today. But like he said; not a chance.

“You know, it’d be a good idea, get a couple of girls over,” nana mumbles quietly as she scrubs at a dirty dish. “The ladies love a guy who’s good with kids,” she adds, looking up at Dan with a wink.

It’s supposed to be a joke but Dan’s stomach seems to plummet inside of him. He takes the plate from her hands and dries it quickly and shoves it into the rack with a forced laugh.

“Ha, yeah,” he stutters, feeling his face burn red. “Sure they do.”

Which isn’t exactly a lie – girls do like guys that are good with kids. But Dan isn’t interested in those girls, or any girls for that matter.

Nana takes a mug and begins lathering it up with dish soap, letting a silence fall over the two of them. Dan glances down at her and it seems like she had no idea of what she’d said, or notice her grandsons weird reaction, but she puts her mug down on the side, still dripping with thick bubbles, and turns to face Dan.

“Tell you what,” she says, and Dan knows she’s about to offer up a deal by the tone of her voice.  
“I’ll finish up in here, and as long as you promise to help out today for your brother, you can go back to your room and go talk to that friend of yours, which is what I know you’d much rather be doing.”

Dan feels his entire body rush hot. He swallows down the lump in his throat and grips tightly onto the damp towel in his hand.

“How did you-“

Nana cuts him off with a chuckle, like she always does. “Grandmother intuitive,” she tells him with a grin. Dan smiles back at here.

“Go on, get out of here so I don’t have to hear any more of your complaining,” she says, snatching the towel from his hands, waving him out the room.

Just as Dan is about to spin on his heels and head for his room, nana laughs again.

“And maybe whilst you’re up there, ask him if he’d like to come for any future birthday parties.”

Dan lets out a shaky, breathy laugh. “Yeah,” he nods. “Okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi on tumblr !! @watergator


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